Now I See You
by RotWS
Summary: Aizawa is not one to let hopeless dreams continue, and he cares deeply about his students. So when Hagakure's parents ask him to perpetuate their lie about their daughter's Quirk, he decides to tell her the truth instead: she's U.A.'s first Quirkless hero student.
1. Illusions Shattered

Aizawa Shōta was known across U.A. as a man with harsh standards for his students who would not hesitate to expel anyone who didn't meet them. Just this past year, he had expelled every one of the students in his class because not one of them had what it took to be a hero. Contrary to popular belief, though, it wasn't simply because he was a hardass. No, he refused to allow any of his students to be hurt. And he would much rather crush his students' illusions now than let them get hurt later because of them.

Which was why the Hagakure family's request shook him to the bone.

"Pretend not to see Tōru. She needs to believe she's invisible."

He'd come to deliver Hagakure Tōru's acceptance letter personally and congratulate her on being the first person to pass the U.A. Entrance Exam without a Quirk. But, according to her parents, she believed she had one.

"Why does she need to think that?" Aizawa asked, surreptitiously pushing a button on his sleeve. He could understand lies when they were designed to force a student to push their limits. For instance, when he administered the first years' initial Quirk Assessment tests, he frequently threatened to expel the last-place student so all of them would be trying their hardest. (Of course, if the test showed a student had no potential, as he was certain it would with Midoriya in a few months, he wouldn't hesitate to follow through.) Somehow, though, he didn't think this was that kind of lie.

"Quirkless kids are frequently subjected to bullying, resulting in massively increased rates of depression and suicide compared to children with quirks," her father explained. "I experienced that myself, and I was lucky to find a doctor to help me get better. I didn't want my daughter to have to deal with that, so we told her she'd inherited her mother's quirk and got everyone at school to go along with it.."

That, he could understand to a degree. Unfortunately, there were a number of problems with that plan. Problems he wasn't willing to ignore. However, they weren't likely to allow him to see their daughter unless he seemingly acquiesced. Pressing the button again, Aizawa nodded, crossing the fingers of his other hand as he did so. "All right. I understand that. Where is Tōru?"

The mother turned and called upstairs, "Tōru! Someone's here to see you!"

"Coming, Mom!" A voice replied. Soon, a teenaged girl with short black hair, an angular face, and a pink dress came down the stairs into the living room.

Aizawa turned up to greet her. "Hagakare Tōru. I'm Professor Aizawa from U.A. High. I have good news and bad news for you. Which do you want to hear first?"

Hagakare-shoujo didn't hesitate. "The bad news first. That way, the good news can cheer me up!"

Aizawa wasn't sure if anything could cheer her up after this, but it had to be done. He moved his fingers down and pressed another button.

Her father's voice could be clearly heard in the recording. "Quirkless kids are frequently subjected to bullying, resulting in massively increased rates of depression and suicide compared to children with quirks. I experienced that myself, and I didn't want my daughter to have to deal with that, so we told her she'd inherited her mother's quirk and got everyone at her school to go along with it."

The man himself clenched his fist and turned to Aizawa. "I NEVER GAVE YOU PERMISSION TO RECORD ME OR TELL HER!"

"I'm the pro hero Eraserhead," Aizawa replied. "I don't need your permission. Not when the matter is so important to your child's wellbeing."

"WE KEPT IT FROM HER FOR HER WELLBEING!"

Had the man forgotten his daughter was listening to every word he said?

"And how were you going to convince the villains she'd be fighting to play along?"

Hagakure-san may have been Quirkless, but Aizawa didn't need his Quirk to fix him with such an intense gaze that he lost his nerve.

"All it takes is one person, and she'd get hurt because she assumed she was hidden when she wasn't. Better to tell her now than let that happen, since she's so determined to be a hero."

Loud sniffles and crying came from the side. Hagakure-shoujo was holding herself as tears rolled down her cheeks. "I-I thought I was special like Mommy. That I could be a ninja hero with my Quirk." She paused to take a handkerchief out of her purse and blow her nose, than continued. "But no. You've been lying to me my whole life! All the boys have seen me naked because you told me they couldn't see me! How am I supposed to be a hero like this?"

"That's the good news," Aizawa cut in. "You can be."

"How?"

"Eight thousand people applied to the U.A. Hero Course last week. Despite your lack of a Quirk, Hagakure-shoujo, you recognized the robots' weak spots and didn't hesitate to exploit them. Plus, you went out of your way to save others from the robots. Only the top 36 across both the written and practical entrance exams were accepted into U.A., and a Quirkless person has never done well enough to claim one of those spots. Until now.

"Hagakure-shoujo, you are the first Quirkless hero U.A. has ever accepted. That alone makes you special."

Hagakure looked up. "You really mean it?"

"You'll need to learn your limits. There are times when your lack of a Quirk means you won't be able to do as well as those who have one. However, you have more potential to be a hero than my entire homeroom put together." He wasn't exaggerating there, either. Granted, pretending you were the only person in existence would still be better than that class had been, which was why he'd expelled the lot, but Hagakure had been a single point away from making it into the top 10 and had done better in individual categories than several of the people who did make it there. "Quirks aren't everything. With the proper equipment and training, you'll ve certain to make it as a pro.

"Hagakure, welcome to your hero academia."

He barely managed to catch her before she hit the ground.


	2. Departure

Hagakure Tōru was ordinarily a bubbly, upbeat, energetic girl. She tended to approach life with a smile, even if it was for her alone to see. Of course, it was hard to keep up that attitude given what she'd just learned.

"I HATE YOU!" she yelled at her parents. It was a rare occasion when she showed her father's temper, but this was one of those times. "All those times I wanted to go out and you told me it was too dangerous -- you were just trying to make sure I never met anyone who wasn't in on your lies! The times I thought it would be funny to sneak naked around guests, they all saw me! We never had any family photographs, not because Mom and I wouldn't show up in them, but because Iwould! Even my stupid haircut -- I had to use scissors on myself because I thought nobody else could see my hair, and I didn't care what it looked like because only I could see it, but you just let me look stupid in front of everyone!

"Aizawa-sensei is the only one who's ever told me the truth. That's why I want to leave with him!"

Her mother and father flinched back at the words. Even Aizawa had a brief look of shock on his face, though he quickly got it under control.

"You can't leave,Tōru," her mother said. "We're your family."

"The government doesn't step in to deal with bad parenting very often," Aizawa cut in, "but given your roles as her Quirk counselors in addition to her parents, as well as the magnitude of this stunt you pulled, they will make an exception in this case. You'll be lucky if you only lose your counseling licenses and parental rights." He turned toTōru. "Go and pack whatever you need."

"We'll file a police report! Charge you with kidnapping!" her father bellowed.

"Did you really think I only recorded that one statement?" Aizawa asked, and her father shut up immediately. "The entire recording will be passed on to the relevant authorities." There might have been more he said, but the sound cut out when Tōru closed the door to her bedroom.

First things first, figure out how much bag space I have.

As it turned out, she had one large bag for plushies and another for clothes and bedding. Not nearly enough for everything she had, of course; clothes and plushies were her main way of expressing herself, so that was most of what she'd ordered with her allowance.

Oh, there was her phone. She shouldn't forget that.

Actually... There was something she could do.

Tōru unlocked her phone and went to the camera setting. She'd never tried the selfie function, as she'd been certain it wouldn't work, but now she activated it and took a quick picture.

Then she sent it to all of her contacts, along with a caption saying "I know you all lied to me. Don't bother replying."

Even if she could forgive them later, she didn't want to hear from any of them right now.

Tōru returned to picking out the clothes she'd be taking along with her. She knew which colors went with each other, but she now had to take into account her hair and skin color. As a result, a large chunk of her outfit that had been okay when she thought only she could see how stupid she looked was suddenly no good now that she knew the truth. Eventually, she managed to pare it down enough that she had the bag ready. Her charger, earphones, and wallet went in her purse, and then there was nothing left to do here.

She walked down the stairs and moved to tap Aizawa on the shoulder so he'd know she was there, but he turned and asked, "You ready?"

Oh, right, I'm actually visible. That's going to take some getting used to.Out loud, she said, "Yes, Aizawa-sensei."

"Then let's go." He opened the door without another word and walked out,Tōru following right behind him. She took the door and slammed it hard.Time to leave behind those liars for good.

"Hop in," Aizawa said as he got into his car.Tōru got in the other side and started up her phone. She might not want to talk to anyone, but there were things she could still do. Look at dokkiri shows, for one.

So for the entirety of the drive to Aizawa's house, that was what she did.

\--

Aizawa sighed as he watchedTōru setting up in a spare bedroom. He'd have to talk with her tomorrow about what she wanted to do, since she'd latched on to him. Right now, though, he had to make a report and then catch up on some much-needed sleep. He dug out his phone and called Nezu.

The animal of unknown type answered immediately. "So how'd it go?"

"The parents were bad enough I had to rake her home with me for her own safety."

"What did they do?"

"Controlled her entire life so they could make her think she was invisible. I have no idea how she managed to get through the entrance exam without anyone commenting on her looks, but apparently I was the first person who wouldn't play along."

Nezu's jaw dropped. "Even her Quirk counselors? You can't be serious."

"Her parents served as her Quirk counselors."

"Well, well, well..." Nezu now had a crafty look on his face. "Send me the proof. You know how much I hate ethics violations in science."

Aizawa did, of course. All the teachers knew Nezu had himself been the victim of some unethical experiments.

"Thank you, Aizawa. I'm going to havefundealing with this."


	3. Apology

I am, unfortunately, not going to be able to update this story on FFN. Nothing against the site, but their rules block material necessary for this Toru's development. (And I'm not talking about sex here.)

If you want to see more of the story, I am also posting it on Archive Of Our Own. I plan to update there later today.


End file.
